Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Random Thoughts on Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is getting a lot of press lately some of which is good and some not so good. There seems to be a lot of disagreement on what EA is and isn't. There is also disagreement on the value of EA. I'm not attempting to address either of those items just jotting down some observations as I monitor these conversations.

-How come it take so long for us IT folks to get a definition of something locked down? SOA, Cloud Computing, EA all are still debated on simple definition. This just serves to confuse others and generally hurts the overall progress.

-EA is evolving into distinct camps: Traditional EA which is IT based and heavy on the frameworks, business based which wants to evolve EA into the entire enterprise with IT just another component of that and a hybrid camp which is trying to bridge the gap.

-All of the EA discussions appear to still be IT based. I haven't seen a lot of business leaders jumping into the discussions. Some IT folks want to evolve EA beyond IT but have the business folks bought into that? Are the business schools focused in or have any discussions on EA at all?

-To much focus on the EA Frameworks can hurt the overall effort of EA. EA's become paper pushers and not architects.

Those are some random thoughts/observations I had while monitoring these ongoing EA conversations. The scope of EA seems to be the most hotly debated. EA is obviously focused on the business but at what level? I think that one is going to be tough to answer without business leaders joining in the conversation.

About Me

Focus is on Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Computing and Services. My site topics have a slant towards Cloud Computing and next generation business software design but can include anything else I might have interest in.
My opinions are just that and are subject to change at the drop of a hat. The opinions are my own and do not represent my employer in any way.